30 Apr 2018

Member of Parliament for Mahalapye West, Mr Joseph Molefe has commended the Botswana Stock Exchange (BSE) for hosting the first ever BSE open day in Mahalapye.

Mr Molefe said Mahalapye was a vibrant village because of its location between Gaborone and Francistown hence open to investment opportunities.

Addressing civil servants and the Mahalapye business community at Cresta Mahalapye Hotel on how to access the investment and capital raising opportunities availed at the BSE recently, Mr Molefe said it was as a privilege for such an initiative to be availed to residents of Mahalapye, and urged them to utilise BSE as a vehicle for wealth creation.

The event, he said, aimed to promote financial literacy and inclusion.

“Financially literate consumers can assess risks and make informed decisions about the suitability of products to achieve their financial goals,” said Mr Molefe, adding that “information disclosure must go hand in hand with financial literacy.”

Mr Molefe said educational campaigns helped Batswana make informed decisions in an ever changing and complex financial environment.

He urged participants to use available platforms for acquiring knowledge and insight on how to better their livelihoods through utilising investment avenues at the BSE.

Mr Molefe said customary forms of investment such as farming, property, insurance and metshelo were accepted by Batswana, but that the stock market continued to elude many due to lack of understanding.

“As many of us will learn today, the BSE is not for the wealthy or the elite, but for the ordinary Motswana regardless of age or social class,” he said.

MP Molefe said the BSE provided an array of investment products with different risk profiles and returns.

He noted that wealth could not be created through one income stream only, and that it was important to participate in a well-balanced and diversified portfolio which assisted in minimising risks.

The growth of any economy, Mr Molefe said, depended on having an enlarged, diversified and robust private sector.

He said residents should take pride in how the BSE had assisted in growing privately owned entities to achieve their strategic goals by using the organisation as a springboard to grow.

He commended the role BSE played in driving the growth and diversification of the economy, and urged all business owners with aspirations of listing their companies with BSE to use the event to acquire information.

The stock exchanges product development head, Mr Kopano Bolokwe said there was only 22 per cent of the working class investing in the stock market, and appealed to them to prepare for their retirement and life after work.

He commended Mahalapye residents, saying that out of the millions of investments at the BSE, four per cent was from the Central District, Mahalapye included.

Retail investment specialist, Ms Thato Leuwe noted that a financial plan was crucial to every life stage and emphasised the importance of budgeting.

“Set your financial goals, emergency fund is a critical fund to have since you never know when crisis will come your way,” she noted. ENDS